Middle East
Five Opinions from Israel
What Should We Do?
Journalists from the centrist Tel Aviv daily Yediot Aharanot posed the question, “What should we do?” to five Israelis from across the political spectrum: Ehud Olmert, the mayor of Jerusalem; Zahara Antabi, a founder of Four Mothers, a peace organization; Raphael Eitan, former chief-of-staff of the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] and former minister of agriculture, a cabinet-level position; Amram Mitzna, mayor of Haifa; and Naomi Regan, an American-born writer living in Jerusalem.
Ehud Olmert: Continue living life as usual – but securely
The government should continue doing what it is doing today, erecting the security fence and exercising all necessary measures to heighten security. While the security forces are making a major effort to curb attacks, we must create a reality which will ease the life of the citizens that will persuade them to go back to normalcy. We must not surrender to the fear: Even today, it is safer to walk in the streets of Jerusalem that drive a car on Israel’s roads.
Unfortunately, I do not anticipate a dramatic change any time soon. We will continue living from one attack to the next, and will continue to hope that the security forces’ operations will succeed in decreasing the number of attacks to a minimum, even though no number of attacks is acceptable or tolerable.
Zahara Antabi: Fight terror and remove the settlements
Rather than asking ourselves what we want and taking the initiative, we only react to situations… Why are we trying to discern what [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat and [imprisoned Palestinian legislator Marwan] Barghouti want instead of taking action ourselves?
We have to fight terror, but at the same time, we must get rid of the isolated settlements, gather within the border of a democratic Jewish state, and unilaterally separate from the Palestinians. Last week [Arafat’s representative in East Jerusalem] Sari Nusseibeh said: “Leave us be.” That’s what we have to do. Just let them be. [It’s best] that we go back to being a good old Jewish and democratic state instead of demanding: “Let the IDF win.” The country is not a military project.
Raphael Eitan: Declare war and eradicate terror
This is a long war and whoever thinks he has a solution doesn’t understand the Middle East.
One thing that contributes to this madness is that it is a struggle between cultures. If we lose, we’re doomed. We need to deal with the potential of terror. For that, we need excellent intelligence, [we need] initiative, and [we need] to wage a psychological war.
The person who blows himself up does so because of fanaticism. This is what we must stop. We must declare a state of war and then do everything we can to end our losses. We need to expel the suicide bombers’ families to Lebanon and destroy their houses. If we continue to act according to the judiciary system, it will lead us to greater harm.
Amram Maznea: Peace negotiations, remove the settlements, and a war on terror
Personally, after I understood the difficult reality we’ve been living the past two years, I decided to take responsibility and attempt to lead in a way that will change the [current] situation.
We need the following: First, we need to return to negotiations with the Palestinians based on the Clinton-Barak agenda that was discussed at Camp David.
If we find no one to talk to or nothing to talk about, we need to move to the next phase, in which Israel will unilaterally define her vital interests and will create a new border between Israel and the Palestinians.
The end result must be the removal of all the settlements from the Gaza Strip and the isolated settlements in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]. Protecting them ties up too many of the security forces’ resources.
At the same time, we must make an immediate national effort to erect a border along Judea and Samaria.
We must also make an effort to uncover and target terrorists, those who aid them, and the infrastructure that helps them execute the most damaging attacks.
Naomi Regan: Doesn’t want apartheid but sees no choice
I am currently in Switzerland with an Israeli tour group and I see people walking in the streets without fear. It reminded me how we lived before Oslo. It’s a tragedy that we have reached a point where we feel safer abroad than at home.
This feeling comes from, among other things, the harsh criticism of the chief inspector [of the government agencies of Israel] on the conduct of the security forces stationed at the border.
We need to urgently change the political and security system that is responsible for the security forces stationed at the border. Simply throw them out and start from scratch because at this time, nobody is taking responsibility for the current state of affairs. I witnessed the attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya on Passover and now I understand that they [the security forces] simply abandoned us.
This state of emergency requires drastic measures. I don’t want to live in a state of apartheid but as an immediate solution that will save lives, we must separate ourselves and the enemy.
Every person who works here and does not serve in the army, every person who raises suspicion, should not be allowed to enter Israel. It cannot be avoided.
Translated by Yael Menahem
